Destination: Io
Destination: Io
The holographic display showed the scene captured by the surveillance optics outside the ship and created a star map via circular hologram on the bridge. Hao Ren saw the system before him. It was slightly greyish, meaning that the system was being surrounded by a massive cluster of Oort cloud. The star map showed a straight continuous bright belt with countless individual lights, as if thousands upon thousands of stars had congregated there. It seemed like the place was a cradle of stars, and it was churning out new stars every moment, launching them towards the galaxy.
"Such a... magnificent place," Y'zaks said as he momentarily turned away from his papers as soon as they arrived. He looked around. "Looks like the siren's home galaxy is still young."
"Io is just right in front of us. Apporaching destination," the MDT's voice was broadcasted through the communication system. "Just a little bit more... Alright, you can see it now."
Before the holographic display, a dim-looking planet quickly expanded into view. It was totally covered by a mass of ocean and a perpetual blue hue. Only a few white clusters appeared on the northern hemisphere of the planet; they were floating glaciers. The southern hemisphere was canvassed by a massive layer of clouds and based on Nasaton's records, the clouds were an atmopsheric phenomenon, which cycled year by year across the face of the planet. The sirens of yore called it the "Sky Curtain".
The sun was facing the side of the Petrachelys and Io, shining across the planet's surface. It gave it a glistening sheen.
"So this is the siren's home planet..." Lily said as she lay back in the bridge seat. Turning around, she looked at the siren queen. "That's your old home."
Shaqira and Sorma stared unblinkingly at the holographic display. The sea-covered planet was the only thing in their eyes now. It took a while before Hao Ren asked them, "So... how do you feel now?"
"I... don't know..." Shaqira looked rather confused. "I thought I would be very excited, but I don't find anything special about the planet when I see it... Almost as if I can't even fathom this was my birthplace."
Nangong Sanba stood up as he tidied up his long, black coat. He struck a pose as if he was about to give a motivational speech. "That's because you're in space. A homeland is grass and water, it's the streets, the cacophony of activities in the streets. If you've never experienced these things here, it's not truly a homecoming. Besides, seeing a 3D model of your planet is hardly a way for you to experience—"
Wuyue raised her head and glanced at her brother. "Can you stop acting cool, brother? That motivation speech is just so drab... and if I remember correctly, you used it 20 years ago with some old Chinese folks. You even got two white jade rings from them."
"...And why did you conveninently leave out the fact that I caught three evil spirits for the old man?!"
Seeing the two siblings bicker was definitely much more fun than seeing Wuyue prod the floor panel with her tail.
The Petrachelys soon arrived on Io as it turned towards the sun-facing side of the planet. As the planet had no landmass, there were no proper landing points and Hao Ren decided to park the ship on a piece of floating glacier. Just as the ship finally approached it, a flicker of light blinked on the holographic display. Hao Ren looked at the light and noted that there was something floating on the northern hemisphere of Io and he immediately changed course towards it.
"What's that?" Lily's ears perked up as she entered her curious husky mode. "Looks like a space station?"
The Petrachelys was closing in on a space station, which emitted the flickering strobes, and a curved outline started to form. It was almost like a massive city with layers upon layers of shells on it. There was a circle of crystal-encrusted high walls around the place, but there were nothing above the city. It seemed like there was supposed to be an energy barrier of sorts, but it was gone now.
Hao Ren felt that it looked very familiar and was immediately reminded. "Doesn't this look almost the same as Nasaton?"
"I almost couldn't recognize it from above!" Vivian was surprised. "So... this is the other migrant ship? Why didn't it launch?"
"Approach it slowly. MDT, run through the database we previously copied from Nasaton's data vault. See if there's any sister ship for Nasaton, or something."
Hao Ren's attention was entirely focused on Io as well as the siren's fragmented history, and he overlooked many items that were taken from Nasaton's data vault. Now that he had seen another migrant ship, he realized that he needed to check if the sirens had built any other escape vessels and find out their subsequent fate."
The Petrachelys was closing in on the spaceship that looked like Nasaton and the MDT's voice rang, "Scanning through the data vault... There are three sister ships for Nasaton; the Zalazarn, the Antwern and the Palasion. The Antwern underwent special modification, and has a signature alloy core tower. The other ships are similar to the Nasaton. Seems like they were built from the same blueprint."
"So, that should be one of the mass-produced designs then." Hao Ren's interest was immediately piqued. "Any signs of threats?"
"Initial scans shows that there are no signs of life on board, but we can't discount the possiblity of any difficult-to-recognize alien life forms."
The Petrachelys may have been a very advanced spacecraft, but it was only a few hundred meters long. Next to the massive hulk, it was like a speck of dust. Hao Ren allowed the ship to slowly maneuver its way above the derelict craft as he paid full attention on checking out the ship's status. The derelict spaceship was clearly inert and it now floated aimlessly along Io's orbit, rotating slowly as it went. The siren queen looked on for a moment before saying, "It doesn't have a water dome."
"Forget the water dome, it's dry as a husk," Lily mumbled as she shook her head.
The ship's barrier had been deactivated and there were many signs of damage on the outer walls. The water that once flowed through the spacecraft had long evaporated. Many of the internal structures and facilites were exposed to the dry vacuum as they deterioted under the merciless, scorching sun and cosmic radiation.
Hao Ren saw a series of post-explosion rents on the rear of the ship and this was undoubtedly the main reason why the ship had lost all function. But, who was the culprit?
Was it the brain monster, or the First Born?
Hao Ren then looked at the control dais. "Hey, Brick, have you detected the teleportation gate?"
"No. It could be deep in the ocean, or hidden within a dimensional gap like Nasaton. I need to run a thorough planetary scan. And let me remind you that I'm an MDT. You can't just come up with a nickname..."
"Any signs of the brain monster?"
"I'll need to run a scan to determine that too. I'm not done yet, you need to respect the worth of a PDA..."
"Go on then. Place a few more scouting drones. The brain monster may already be waiting for us down there," Hao Ren said as he headed towards the bridge's door. "I'll lead a party to check on the derelict spaceship to confirm the cause of explosion. I'll be back in a jiffy."
"Oh, sure. But I still want to stress the fact that I'm an MDT..."
Hao Ren totally ignored the MDT and marched towards the teleporter. As he walked, he asked, "So who's coming? Bring your lifehoop with you."
Lily immediately leaped up to follow. "Mr. Landlord, wait, I'm coming! Look, I've put a bell on the collar, is it cute..."
Vivian sighed as she followed too. "I'll go. Just the both of you on your own worries me to death."
The trio then left the Petrachelys as they teleported towards the outer wall of the derelict spaceship. After releasing a few signal flares, the Petrachelys disappeared swiftly into the horizon. It was going to do a full scan on Io.
The derelict spaceship had no power, and without question, did not have artificial gravity as well. Exploring the place would need some measure of skill. Hao Ren demurred as he tried to plan the best path towards the area of explosion. He reminded the two ladies through the comms, "Be careful out there. Don't run into the pillars. The both of you are still not used to movement in space."
Just as he finished his sentence, Lily darted ahead excitedly and crashed headlong into one of the thick alloy pillars. Her head was stuck in it for a good while...
"Well... crashing into one isn't a problem then."